The home of the Dalai Lama

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After sharing a dorm with a few mouses for the past 2 nights, I was ready to move on. The plan was to go to Dharamshala, the home of the Dalai Lama. Apparently, the Dalai Lama was around according to Kirsi, the finnish girl I met at the border so maybe I'd have a chance to have a chat with him over a beer and a juicy hamburger.

I left fairly late, at around 830 or so. I left a generous donation to the temple as I felt very grateful for the way I was treated there. They give you free lodging and free food for nothing. I highly doubt that Sikh tourists get the same treatment in Vatican.

I took a cyclerickshaw to the bus station after a reasonable amount of bargaining. Once at the station, I was again surprised by how orderly things were. There were tickets booth and no oppresively dense crowds. The place was large and finding the bus was easy. First I had to take a bus to Pathenkot, about 4 hours north and from there Id take a bus heading east into Dharamsala.

The bus left quickly after I got in and I paid a ridiculously low amount of money. It was a local bus which means it stops everywhere to pick up or drop people. The ride was a bit slow but I got to Pathenkot in about 4 hours without problems. There I got off and again was surprised at how orderly things were, its definately not the image of the chaotic bus station I was expecting it to be. I got on a bus to Dharamsala right away.

I sit alone at first but after about an hour an Indian guy sit next to me and he soon starts talking. I'm not in a very talkative mood but he doesn't take the hints. It's the usual whyareyouhere? Howlonghaveyoubeeninmycountry? Areyoustudent? questions that seem to be universally thought in schools around Asia. Usually I'm happy to talk but today I was just a bit sick of talking and just wanted to relax and look at the mountains.

Dharamsala is in the Pir Panjal mountain range, which is a mountain range south of the Himalayas proper. Given its geographical location, it catches the monsoon clouds from the indian plain. As a result, it rains a lot here and the vegetation is very luxurious. Nothing like the Karakoram in Pakistan or the Indian Himalayan. It actually reminded me more of the mountains in North Luzon in the Philippines (but bigger). The mountain ranges block the clouds from going further north in the Himalayas proper which makes them dry and arid.

The Indian man kept talking to me while I was trying to observe the scenery. He is a IT student at some university in Amristar. He mentioned how lucky I was to be able to travel the world, with envy in his voice (a feeling I can understand). He broke the new to me that the Dalai Lama had left town today to Delhi, more than likely to pose in a photoshoot for his new book. He eventually left in a village close to Dharamsala but not before giving me his phone number in case of emergency!

Talking about the Dalai Lama, I want to have a few paragraphs here to whine about something. I'm all for nonviolence and things like that, but I think it is time that people realize that the main reason why Tibet is still under chinese domination is because of that non-violence policy by China. Non-violence worked for Gandhi but it doesn't mean that it works in every situation, especially not when the enemy's population couldn't care less if all tibetans died and their government even less.

When China invaded Tibet in the 1950's, it had absolutely no infrastructure and was about 100% tibetan. The chinese controlled a few towns but the countryside was by and large tibetan. This is perfect guerilla scenario. The tibetans were used to the condition on the plateau, they controlled the land, they had vast borders where they could import weapons from India who was more than happy to put a stick in the wheel of China (as shown by it's welcoming of the tibetans and the Dalai Lama) and more importantly they had a obvious and uncontested leader. China back in the day was not anywhere as stable or strong as it is now and a guerilla campain would have forced them out eventually of the main areas of Tibet.

But Dalai Lama didn't go this way, he opted for "peaceful solution" and what is the result? Tibet is now more than 50% chinese, the occupier has succesfully smashed any nationalistic movement and they built enough transport infrastructure to move in a matter of days thousands of troops. Nothing can be done against China now and I think it is important to realize why. I can't totally blame the old Dalai Lama for this, he pretty much had the education of a medieval baron in worldly matter (as in politics and reality outside his plateau) and his mistake was totally understandable. Some people might say that non-violence is the only way to achieve anything, but vietnamese would probably beg to differ. There's a reason why Hanoi is not called New Boston.

Anyway. Let's stop the "what if". Now the tibetan government in exile is in Dharamsala in northern India. This is where the Dalai Lama lives and where the tibetans lobby for the freedom of Tibet. A lot of Tibetans live in town and around, having resetteld there after walking for weeks from Tibet (or coming from parents who did the journey). There's still many Tibetan who attempted the walk. I actually met a tibetan in Gansu whose brother had done the journey when I slept with the nomads in Langmusi.

When we reached Dharamsala I got at the back of a pickup truck which left shortly after I arrived for the 30 minutes ride to Mcload Ganj, where most of the tibetan action is. It took me a while to figure out where I was at first but then I found the guesthouse I was looking (Kanga guesthouse) for and got a room for a fairly cheap price.

My first impression of the town was that it was overrun by foreigners, the temperature was perfect, that tibetans women are more beautiful in Indian than in China and that 10Rs for 5 momos (tibetan dumpling) is a great deal. Even though the town was overly touristy I enjoyed it. I spent some time wandering around the place before going to Nick's italian restaurant for dinner. I had the best pasta I've had since Canada (doesn't beat my mom's though) there. So delicious. Filipinos, chineses and pakistanis couldn't make decent pasta to save their lifes, but it seems that tibetans have found the way. It was so good I'm still hungry just thinking about it.

I spent the rest of the evening in an internet cafe and headed back to the hotel early, or so I thought, around 8PM. I found the gate of the hostel closed. I went up and down trying to find an alternative entry but couldn't find anything. I banged on the gate for a long time without answer. I was getting really pissed thought and was thinking of violently throwing a big stone at the window so that it would break and it would get the attention of the reception boy (and then I'd act all innocent and said it was someone else or something). Before acting like a vandal i decided to ask for some help from the people at the hotel upstairs. It turns out they knew how to open the gate so after 30 minutes I was able to get in. I threw a tantrum at the reception guy who didn't understand what I said. Idiot.

The next 3 days were spent pretty much exactly the same. I lazed around, ate almost exclusively at Nick's and at the momo's street stall (about 50/50). What I'll remember from the city will definately be the food. Nick's does delicious french toast also. Hmmm. I'll put that restaurant in the same category as Leisha's from Langmusi, that is: Best in the World (for a budget traveller).

After the first night I changed hotel and went upstairs to the hotel of the guys who helped me to get in the other hotel. I got a bigger room for a cheaper price. Good deal. Plus they don't close at a ridiculous hours. It appeared that I was getting less sick. By the last day I felt almost 100% recovered.

I had some walks around town, including to Bhagsu, a picturesque little village. I went to see the Dalai Lama's residence and the main temple of the Tibetan government in exile. Nothing spectacular but interesting. It was nice to be among buddhist once more. The prayer wheels and the monks gave me a nice impression of deja vu (on the other side of the mountains).

I was surprised by the large proportion of hindus and nepalis in town. I was expecting it to be much more tibetans than it was. You had "low caste" (as in, darker skinned) woman beggars with children, cows wandering (and pooping) the streets eating whatever garbage they could find and in general the population was probably more than 50% hindu.

For some reason I was not planning on doing much and was happy to laze around, reading books, surfing the internet, taking nap or just walking around town. In retrospect it's obvious that since Lahore I've been lazy because of my diarhea which sapped my energy but at the time I rationalized it by saying it's nice to have a rest from time to time when you travel, which is true but was probably not the main reason of my lazyness.

Nevertheless, by the 4th day I was getting restless so I decided to take a local bus to Manali which left at 6AM the next day.

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Photos

Prayer wheels
Monk and old tibetan woman turning the wheels.

Big plastic buddha
Brand new.

Cow eating street vegetables
Just eating the vegetables from the street seller when he's away.

Dharamsala 4
Beautiful pink reflection on that cloud

Temple complex
Well that foreigner managed to get right in the middle but you can see the street people, the holy man (in red) and the sign telling people to help free the Panchen Lama (held in Beijing)

Valley around Mcleod
This is the Pir Panjal mountains. Extremely lush, green and full of life. Reminds me of North Luzon mountains in the Philippines.

Street dogs
They're everywhere and sometimes they go and sniff your hands for food but they don't seem overly aggressive.

Comments

[Kévin Therrien-Coulombe]

So
Hey Vic... where are you now?? November 2nd... i read.. i think i'll spend my night on your blog! really... incredible, majestic, pictures, details, stories and anecdotes! I'll go to Afghanistan next august and you convinced me to make a blog too! Kev